University of Idaho names new president

The University of Idaho has named Chuck Staben its new president. Staben will begin work effective March 1.

Staben named University of Idaho president

The University of Idaho announced Nov. 18 that Chuck Staben will be its new president, effective March 1.

Staben is provost at the University of South Dakota, a position he’s held since August 2008.

“Land grant universities, including the University of Idaho, improve lives and strengthen our society,” Staben stated in a UI press release. “Leading this university is a privilege that I value deeply.”

Stäben will take over from interim president Don Burnett, who served in that position beginning in March 2013, after Duane Nellis accepted a position as president at Texas Tech.

Staben was one of five finalists for the position.

“The caliber of the applicants was outstanding, and Dr. Staben rose to the top of that highly qualified field,” Idaho State Board of Education president Don Soltman said in a press release.

Staben served as associate vice president for research at the University of Kentucky from 2005-2009. He also served as department chair of biology and a biology professor at the University of Kentucky. His research focused on fungal developmental biology, bioinformatics and fungal genomics.

Staben received a bachelor of sciences degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in 1978 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California-Berkeley in 1984.